Winner of the 2004 Philip Johnson Award presented by the Society of Architectural Historians "Central European Avant-Gardes" presents the first interpretive overview of the complex webs of interaction among the artists and intellectuals of early twentieth-century Central Europe. The key stylistic transformation of the period was from Expressionism to Constructivism, as artists and writers, against a volatile background of war and revolution, saw the opportunity literally to construct a new world through their work. The borders between the visual arts, photography, film, architecture, poetry, and typography were obliterated, as artists sought to transcend the forces of traditionalism to forge an elemental visual language that would overcome national and linguistic boundaries. Yet at the same time that these artists advocated pluralism and unity, their work engaged issues such as nationalism and tradition that still resonate in artistic circles today. The book, which accompanies a major exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and curated by Timothy Benson, assisted by Monika Krol, is arranged around events and situations rather than by linear, art historical categories. It features hundreds of color plates and reproductions of documents; discussions of movements from Artificialism to Zenitism; essays on figures, publications, and exhibitions; and shorter "city views" of Belgrade, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Cracow, Dessau, Ljubljana, odz, Poznań, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, Weimar, and Zagreb.

Foreword

p. 8

Introduction

p. 12

A Careful Definition of the Locale: Walking Around and Around a Solitary Wild Pear Tree

p. 22

Exchange and Transformation: The Internationalization of the Avant-Garde(s) in Central Europe

p. 34

Nationalism and Modernity

p. 68

Prague

p. 81

The First Skupina Exhibition, Prague, 1912

p. 87

Surrealities

p. 90

Poetry in the Midst of the World: The Avant-Garde as Projectile

p. 108

Central Europe: The Linguistic Turn

p. 132

Budapest

p. 141

Between Cultures: Hungarian Concepts of Constructivism

p. 146

Vienna

p. 165

Art into Life: International Constructivism in Central and Eastern Europe

p. 172

Berlin

p. 199

Weimar

p. 205

The First Bauhaus Exhibition, Weimar, 1923

p. 213

Dessau

p. 217

The Exhibition as a Work of Art: Avant-Garde Exhibitions in East Central Europe